They all sat around the coffee table and laughed as Rafe kidded his best friend about his handling of asking Sandra out that April afternoon in 1941. Red again came to his defense and told him that Gooz had really put the pressure on.
"He knew Danny was squirming with all of the attention and he wouldn't let up." He smiled.
"And it wasn't much better for me either." Sandra added. "Barbara was being none to subtle about Danny and it made the both of us pretty self-conscious."
"Thank you honey." Danny smiled at her.
"I'm not just saying that for your benefit, but because it was true. It's a wonder you got up the nerve to come to the hospital to talk to me." She explained.
He laughed. "And I did it then because I knew that the other girls weren't workin' that day."
"How did you know that?" Sandra was surprised, and pleased.
"I went over to the hospital a couple of days after we saw each other and asked around. Betty happened to be there and I asked her when you'd be in." He told her.
"She never told me that." She smiled back at her husband as the cry of her baby daughter broke into the conversation and he got up.
"That's because I asked her not to." Danny answered. "Why don't you go ahead and tell them what happened while I check on Annie? And then when I come back, I'll tell them my side of the story." And with a grin he walked down the hall.
Three pair of eyes were suddenly on Sandra as she recounted that day. "I was working the front desk and I was just getting ready to leave for the day…"
The day had been quiet, as the days usually were and Sandra was done with her duty shift.
As much as she was getting used to living in such a beautiful place, it was hard to come to work everyday and not have much going on. She supposed that she had become a bit jaded after having lived in New York and seeing how different it was to work in a hospital in a big city. What they seemed to encounter most at Pearl Naval was sunburn and heat exhaustion. There might be an occasional jelly fish sting to liven things up, but for the most part it was very soft duty.
She felt useless sometimes and it was a feeling she didn't like. She had become a nurse to help people and in her current situation she didn't feel as though she were. She knew she was probably being very ungrateful for the luck she'd drawn with the Navy posting her where they did, but she couldn't help how she felt.
She sighed to herself as she leaned over to retrieve her purse from a cubbyhole under the counter and when she sat up, Lieutenant Danny Walker was standing on the other side. He looked a little uncomfortable and very uncertain. "Ma'am."
She could feel her face flush. "Lieutenant."
"If you have a minute, I 'd like to talk to you." She could see his face also flush.
Sandra stood up and picked up her purse. "I was just about to leave for the day, but you can walk with me to my bus stop if you like." She cringed because she sounded so disinterested, but Danny didn't seem to take it that way because he gave her a shy smile.
"All right." He said and he waited for her. She stopped for a moment to mark herself out for the day and to tell her supervisor that her shift was over and that she was ready to go home. She was dismissed and given her duty schedule for the following week before she came from behind the desk and walked outside with the young Lieutenant. They didn't say much as headed toward her stop and Sandra began to wonder if maybe she'd imagined his interest. "Ma'am, would you like to have a cup of coffee with me before you go home?" He asked.
She hadn't expected that and tried not to look surprised. "All right."
"We can go to the Black Cat if you like. It ain't too far from here and there's a bus stop nearby." He suggested.
"A cup of coffee would hit the spot Lieutenant, thank you." Sandra smiled at him as they changed direction and began to walk toward the diner.
"I wasn't too sure about this place when we first got here." Danny commented. "We ain't been doin' much except trainin' and sometimes I wonder why."
"Have you changed your mind since then?"
He nodded. "I'm figurin' this ain't such a bad place to be. I just wish that Rafe were here and not over there."
"What do you here from him?" She asked.
"Mostly he says it's cold. Not cold like it is back home, but a wet kind of cold. He says it's hard to stay warm and dry, so he feels lucky if he don't need to change his socks more than twice a day."
"It sounds pretty dreary."
He laughed. "That's why I try not to tell him much about the weather because I hate to make it worse by tellin' him how nice it is here."
"You've been friends for a long time."
"Since we were boys. Both of my folks died when I was young, so his parents took me in and gave me a home."
He'd been orphaned. Her heart ached for him because her upbringing had been completely different. She'd grown up with her older brother and her parents in Ohio and even during the worst part of the depression; they had not wanted for anything.
"Ma'am, you don't need to feel sorry for me." He seemed to read her thoughts. "The McCawley's are real good people and they treated me fine."
"I'm sorry Lieutenant. It's just that I can't imagine growing up without my family." She told him.
"It was better than what I had. Mama was already gone and Daddy liked the liquor too much." He sighed and she saw his face flush again. "I'm sorry. That wasn't somethin' that you needed to hear."
She put a hand on his arm. "Why not? It's something that happened to you."
"I know. But it ain't somethin' that you tell a girl you don't really know." Danny explained to her. "Mr. McCawley always says that dirty laundry ain't for airin' because it's between you and God."
"He sounds like a nice man."
"And he's a good man too." He answered before Sandra realized that they had reached the café. "Here we are." He smiled as he opened the door and held it for her as she walked in.
He touched her elbow and pointed to an empty corner booth. She nodded in understanding and he followed behind her. They settled in and a waitress came over to take their order. Danny looked at her and she got the feeling that he was asking her if it was all right if he ordered coffee for the both of them, so she nodded.
"Would you like some pie with your coffee?" The waitress asked him.
They looked at each other again. Pie before dinner?
"We can split a piece if you like." He suggested.
She voiced her previous thought. "Pie before dinner?"
That got him to laugh. It was the first time Sandra had ever heard it and it sent goose bumps up her arms.
"Why not? As long as we don't make a habit of it, what's the harm?"
That made her laugh. "The harm is, I may not have room for dinner. But since I don't intend on making a habit of it I'll split a piece with you."
Her answer seemed to please him and after agreeing on what kind, Danny ordered it and the waitress left the table.
They sat across from each other and Danny cleared his throat and his face flushed. "I came by the hospital to ask if you would have dinner with me Saturday night, or maybe a movie?"
So there it was, he was asking her out on a date.
Saturday was only a couple of days away and she made a mental list of what she had that she could wear on a dinner date. "I think dinner would be fine."
He seemed relieved and he smiled. "We can do it fancy or casual, I didn't know what you would like."
She looked around the café before she looked back at him. "I imagine this place would be pretty quiet on a Saturday night and we'd probably get really good service."
"That's true. Or we could get dressed up and go dancin'." He suggested.
"This coming from someone who said he had two left feet." She laughed and she saw his face flush again.
"I did say that didn't I? Well, if you'd like to go the Officer's Club with me, I've heard they have a pretty good dance band. Or if you didn't want to do that, I've also heard that the battleships have a competition every Saturday night. We might here some good music."
"You came prepared, didn't you?"
"I wanted to give you some choices because I was afraid you'd say no." Danny admitted to her.
"What made you think I would have said no?" She asked.
"The way you looked the other day when you saw us here. You were practically beggin' me not to ask."
"I had the feeling that you wanted to and you were right. I was hoping you wouldn't, but not because I didn't want you to. I just didn't want it to be in front of all of your friends and mine." Sandra explained to him.
"That's why I couldn't. It was somethin' that should have been between you and me and no one else. No matter how much they thought they were helpin'." He smiled self-consciously.
"They do mean well."
"That they do. So what would you like to do?"
She thought about it for a moment. "I've been hearing about that battle of the bands since we got here and it sounds like a lot of fun."
"I could come get you at your quarters and we could eat here before we head over to Ford Island."
"Would you mind if I met you here? I don't want to have to answer a lot of questions from the girls."
Danny nodded. "That's fine with me. Will six thirty be all right?"
"Six thirty will be fine. That will give me plenty of time to get ready."
The waitress appeared with their coffee and pie and laid the check next to Danny. He picked it up and looked at it before he turned it back over and put it back on the table. He looked at Sandra and smiled, "My treat."
He was effectively telling her that he was picking up the tab and there would be no argument about it.
"So ya'll were sneakin' around from the beginnin'." Rafe grinned at Danny as Sandra finished the story.
Danny had come back out from the bedroom to tell Sandra that Ann had gone back to sleep as he sat down next to her. "We didn't see it that way. It was somethin' that was private and we didn't feel that we needed to tell ya'll what was goin' on." He countered.
"You had every right to keep it as private as you wanted." Evelyn told him. "But to be fair to the girls, all we ever wanted was for the two of you to be happy. And because you weren't really talking, we didn't know how you were getting along."
"We knew that Ev, honestly we did." Sandra told her. "But the longer that we kept seeing each other and the more serious it became it was something that we felt so protective of."
"And now you're married and have that beautiful baby." Red smiled at them. "You're really lucky."
"We certainly are." Sandra agreed with him as she leaned over to kiss Danny's cheek. "If you'll entertain our guests, I'm going to make a fresh pot of coffee." She said as she picked up the coffee pot and headed toward the kitchen.
She really was very lucky.